The invention relates to a system for the reproduction of picture signals from a magnetic record carrier in the form of a tape, on which the picture signals are recorded in juxtaposed inclined tracks, the system comprising at least one rotatable magnetic head for consecutively scanning the tracks, a pulse generating device which at the beginning of every scan of a track by the magnetic head generates a position-pulse edge which characterizes the position of the magnetic head relative to the beginning of a track and the picture signals recorded therein, and a character generator for inserting character signals into the reproduced picture signals at intervals determined by a starting-pulse edge generated by means of a control device at a fixed time interval from the position-pulse edge and depending on the line pulses extracted from the reproduced picture signals. Such a system is known from a commercially available magnetic-tape video recorder.
When character signals are inserted into a picture signal reproduced from juxtaposed inclined tracks, for example in order to display alphanumeric characters concurrently with the pictures corresponding to the picture signals on the display screen of a television apparatus, the starting instant, at which the character generator is activated to insert character signals into the picture signals reproduced from the record carrier and which is dictated by the instantaneous starting-pulse edge, is in principle defined arbitrarily depending on the line, i.e. the height in the picture on the display screen, where reproduction of the character should begin. In the above prior art system the starting instant dictated by the relevant starting-pulse edge is situated at always the same fixed time interval from the relevant position-pulse edge. As a result of, for example, stretch on of the record-carrier tape, disturbances in the transport of the record-carrier tape or disturbances in the rotary drive of the magnetic head the picture signals reproduced from the record carrier may be shifted in time relative to the relevant position-pulse edge. Since in the known system the time interval between the position-pulse edge and the starting-pulse edge is always selected to be fixed, the situation may occur that in the case of such shifts in time the relevant starting-pulse edge is shifted in time in relation to the line pulses in the reproduced picture signals, so that the insertion of the character signals, for example, begins at a specific line in one field of the reproduced picture signal and begins at another line in the next corresponding field. As a result of this the picture content of the inserted character signals will jump relative to the picture content of the picture signals reproduced from the record carrier in the direction of the picture height, which is annoying to an observer of the displayed picture contents.